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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Amartya Sen: This election will be quite a sad one
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Amartya Sen: This election will be quite a sad one

Sen says the rise of the AAP is good for India's democracy

Sen said India spends about 1% of its gross domestic product on food security and employment guarantees for the poor but three times as much on electricity, fuel and fertilizer subsidies, which benefit the rich more than the poorest. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/MintPremium
Sen said India spends about 1% of its gross domestic product on food security and employment guarantees for the poor but three times as much on electricity, fuel and fertilizer subsidies, which benefit the rich more than the poorest. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

New Delhi/Jaipur: International economist Amartya Sen says the coming general election is set to be “a sad one" for India—with little to choose between the two main parties bidding to form the next government—but described the recent rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as good for democracy.

“None of the parties look any good at this time," the Nobel laureate told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that was published on Friday in the paper’s India Real Time blog.

He said there has been a “genuine loss of options" for voters across the political spectrum. On the right—a reference to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party—he said, “lots of people who are pro-business end up voting for people whose communal and divisive politics they don’t like".  

“The right of a secular kind has gone. The right of the Hindu kind is strong, no matter how much they play up the development agenda. The party’s base comes from Hindu support."

On the left, the ruling Congress party is “certainly not pro-business".

“The left secular parties remain secular, but I think they’ve lost their brain in many ways," he added.

“This election will be, in my mind, quite a sad one."

But Sen had words of praise for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—the two are old friends from their undergraduate days—saying the economic liberalization introduced by Singh as finance minister in 1991-96 should be seen as part of his legacy. In addition, the economic boom seen during his initial years as prime minister was unprecedented for India.

“So I give him much higher marks than the media does. But I recognize that for various reasons, mostly not very much within his control, the achievements which were very great at one stage have been far less in recent years. The last two years have been pretty bad."

Separately, Sen told the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) on Friday that the rise of the AAP was good for India’s democracy.

“They have a long way to go, but the ice has been broken and the dire need to witness some administrative reforms can’t be denied," he said, addressing a keynote session on the opening day of the seventh JLF.

The AAP had shown how grassroots problems could be raised as electoral issues. “Democracy is an important part of our country; we have to put it to apt use. The power of democracy has been skilfully used recently by Aam Aadmi Party," he said.

In his Wall Street Journal interview, Sen returned to an old and favourite theme of his—the power of the media to bring about change in democracies, particularly in India. The Harvard economist said the Indian media, having played a role in several areas—including highlighting HIV/AIDS in recent years—has yet to report accurately on government social expenditure.

Sen said India spends about 1% of its gross domestic product on food security and employment guarantees for the poor but three times as much on electricity, fuel and fertilizer subsidies, which benefit the rich more than the poorest.

However, most Indians would think the opposite was true—that spending on the poorest far exceeded other subsidies. “I think that it is a lapse of journalistic responsibility that I—as a professor at Harvard, visiting India, giving a lecture at Jaipur—have to give these numbers, [that] they are not on the tips of people’s tongues."

“The fact that the deprivations of the people are not taken up in the media prevents India from using its muscle to deal with the problem. Whenever it’s taken up, it does something."

He pointed to the success of Indian authorities in eradicating polio and in dealing with the effects of cyclone Phailin in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh last October as examples of what can be achieved when measures are taken swiftly.

Similarly, when there were fears a decade ago that India would become the next HIV/AIDS hotspot, “It became a big issue. And things happened. More things ought to happen."

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Published: 17 Jan 2014, 05:34 PM IST
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